Taysan High School and Child

Development Center

The Effect of Social Media Content on Influencing Political

Opinions and Affiliation Among Senior High Students of Taysan
High School and Child Development Center

A Research Study Submitted to

Taysan High School and Child Development Center

Poblacion West, Taysan, Batangas

In Partial fulfillment for the

Second Semester – SHS Department

Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS)

By

Dimailig, Reidel Ghazell

Hornilla, Kendrich

Biňas, Fristan Lois

Kalaw, Ninia

March 2023
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Introduction

In recent years, a communication medium such as Social Media has grown in

popularity among citizens due to its ease of use and efficiency. Social media enables

people to share content and offers extraordinary features, for instance, news channels

that enable people to communicate with one another. People in the current age,

particularly the youthful, are constantly introduced to the media, making them

mindful of events in our country.

Social media is increasingly becoming a part of daily lives, particularly in the

views of everyone on political opinions and stands. According to Tilar, et al., (2020),

As online engagement through social networking sites has grown in popularity among

youths worldwide, including in the Philippines, social media is steadily becoming a

part of everyone's everyday lives, particularly among today's generation, who are

always up to speed when it comes to trends.

Nowadays, social media is among the major key sources of student

information and perspectives on life, governmental issues, and poverty concerns in

our society. It influences the political beliefs and associations  of young users in a

variety of ways, such as through familiarizing them with facts, events, and

information about the issue. 

By the year 2007, political advocates began to employ social media in their

campaigns, and it has been used ever since for its evident impact on political

outcomes.The Youth's head is loaded with details and knowledge from social media.

Candidates and Liberates lay out their platforms and advocacy on different social

media sites in the approaching elections, and as a result, Youth engagement in

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different social media sites helps them obtain information through these social media

platforms.

Social media content can be both correct or wrong depending on the sources

used, as a responsible online user, you should always be aware that political content

should be based on factual research and sources in order to provide the youth with

accurate and appropriate political views/standpoints.

According to Ibardeloza, et al. (2022), Social media keeps people informed on

what's happening in the country, and sometimes even the world. Throughout election

campaigns, the most talked-about information on social media is people's differing

perspectives and thoughts on candidates in the primaries. This is especially true in the

Philippines, wherein patriotism runs deep in the Filipino blood, making them more

choosy and active in the selection of the country's leader.

According to the Section 3 of Republic Act No. 9006 or also known as Fair

Elections Act, election propaganda whether on television, cable television, radio,

newspapers or any other medium is hereby allowed for all registered political parties,

national, regional, sectorial parties or organizations participating under the party-list

elections and for all bona fide candidates seeking national and local elective positions

subject to the limitation on authorized expenses of candidates and political parties,

observance of truth in advertising and to the supervision and regulation by the

Commission on Elections (COMELEC). The said Republic Act permits politicians to

advertise their election propaganda on any medium available including the various

social networking sites resulting in abundance of politics-related content during times

of campaign and the abundance of politics-related content thus, affects the opinions

and affiliations of the majority of the users which are the youths.
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Due to the amount of politics-related content given by social media sites,

youths, who make up the majority of social media users, get more interested in

various political activities. As a result, youths, particularly those in urban areas, are at

a disadvantage.

An assessment about social media use and its impact on political views in the

Philippines, performed from September 1 to 7, 2018, was distributed by Statista

Research Department. As per the insights, 71% of respondents from the Visayas

region showed that anything they saw via online entertainment had affected their

political convictions. In the public capital locale of Manila, 58% of respondents said

that web-based entertainment sway significantly affected their political convictions.

Understanding the political consciousness and knowledge of today's Filipino

youth is crucial to the growth of a free democracy. Young adults' political affinities

are not only facilitated by media material, but they are also shaped by it.

As indicated by the consequences of the recent 2019 midterm elections,33% of

the 61eligible voters were between the ages of 18 to 35, presumably representing the

majority of social media users in the Philippines. Candidates in the 2019 midterm

decisions used virtual entertainment destinations like Facebook, Twitter, and

Instagram to reach voters and present their political platforms,as displayed in a CNN

Philippines research project. A majority of the 62 senatorial candidates who ran in the

2019 elections were not well-liked and had the necessary political clout to succeed in

traditional campaigning. Instead, most of them utilized online entertainment to

overcome any issues among themselves and applicants with all around subsidized

political contraption. (Eusebio, 2021).

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Students  learn about politics through education, peer interaction, and their

parents' personal perspectives, but social media, in particular, has developed as a

prominent forum for political discussion and debate. Most of the millennial are heavy

social media users who rely on platforms like Facebook to stay in touch with friends

and family, the focus of this study will be on how social media sites influence senior

high students' political views and affiliation. The major goal of this study is to see

how effective social media content is in influencing the political affiliations and

opinions of senior high students at Taysan High School and Child Development

Center. Furthermore, this study investigates if young people's use of social media,

particularly senior high school students, has an impact on their political awareness.
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Statement of the Problem

This study aims to investigate at the impact of social media content on political
opinions and affiliations of Taysan High School and Child Development Center
senior high students.

1. What is the profile of the Senior High School student respondents in terms of:

i. Name (optional)

ii. Age

iii. Gender

iv. Grade level

v. Are you a registered voter?

2. What social media platforms do you frequently use?

3. What are student’s main source for news?

4. To what extent does the political content on social media affect the senior high
school student in terms of:

i. Political views/stand

ii. Being active in political participation

5. What approaches or reliable sources of information can be offered to the senior

high school student to avoid fake or misleading political content?
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Conceptual Framework

Systematic process is necessary in creating a research study. This will serve as

pilot of information cycle and as framework for reliable foundation. This was the

combination of different concepts and theories, the same with researcher’s knowledge

in order to attain expected and positive result. The key objective of studying the

effects of social media use on political information is to ascertain how well social

media content affects senior high students' at Taysan High School and Child

Development Center's political attitudes and how this affects the paucity of political

research.

Personal communication via social media brings politicians and parties closer

to their potential voters. It allows politicians to communicate faster and reach citizens

in a more targeted manner and vice versa, without the intermediate role of mass

media. Reactions, feedback, conversations and debates are generated online as well as

support and participation for offline events. Messages posted to personal networks are

multiplied when shared, which allow new audiences to be reached. (Susanna

Tenhunen and Vilma Karvelyte, 2015)

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Figure no. 1

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

I. Demographic
Profile of the
respondents
Influence of social
• Name (optional)
• Age media information on
• Gender
• Grade Level senior high school
• Eligibility to vote
Distribution of students' political
II. Social media
survey opinions and
platforms students
frequently use. questionnaires as affiliations, as well as a

III. Extent of the well as the analysis generating digital

influence of social
of the data. solutions like social
media information
about politics in media pages and
terms of student’s.
groups that provide

factual content and

IV. Student’s main
source of news political news updates.

V. Reliable
information
sources offered to
senior high school
students in order
to avoid
misleading or
inaccurate
political content
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The paradigm (Figure no. 1) represents the process that the researchers will

undertake in order to reach the conclusion in impact of social media content on

Political Opinions and Affiliations of Senior High School Students in Taysan High

School and Child Development Center.The input will consist of the following: the

demographic profile of the respondents when in terms of name (optional), age,

gender, what grade level and if they are a registered voter. It also consists of what

social media platforms do they frequently use, how does social media information

about politics influence their (i) political views/stands and, (ii) level of involvement in

the political issue, then, what are the students’ main source for news. Strategies or

approaches for preventing senior high school students from being exposed to false or

misleading information regarding political topics. On the other side, the process is to

conduct a survey using questionnaire through google forms. The output is the impact

of social media content on Influencing Political Opinions and Affiliations on Senior

High School Students as well as to generate digital solutions like social media pages

and groups that provide factual content and political news updates.
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Scope and Limitation of the Study

The main objective of this research is to ascertain the influence of social

media information on senior high school students in Taysan High School and Child

Development Center's political ideas and affiliations. The process included were

giving of survey questionnaire. This study aims to thoroughly understand the topic at

hand and to generate insightful and important ideas using the available data.

This study is limited only to 50 senior high students as respondents as they are

the one suited in this study.With this matter, the researchers decided to deal with these

respondents to attain the conclusion of social media’s influence on senior high school

students' political opinions and affiliations. Furthermore, on their political awareness.

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Significance of the Study

The result of this study will merit the following:

To the school administrators.

The results of this study could be used as a foundation to evaluate

innovative and established proposals that center on appropriate uses of social media in

regards to their potential political influence.

To the teachers.

The results of this study can be used as a reference to teach students about

how social media affects their political viewpoints and to assist them come up with

suggestions for potential initiatives that administrators might carry out to learn more

about this topic.

To the students

The results of this study will provide a background knowledge as well as will

serve as guide of the topic talked about.

To parents

The results of this study will make them enlightened regarding how social

media affects children' political views and beliefs.

To the researchers
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The results of this study will benefit them by enhancing their understanding

and assisting them to develop better research techniques.

To social media users

The results of this study will help users in generating their own opinions based

on independent research, conclusions, and interactions with others.

To the future researchers

The results of this study will serve as the foundation for subsequent

research and as a basis for literature that may serve as a manual for researchers in the

future who wish to conduct other studies.

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Definition of Terms

Advocacy. The act of providing information and resource to individuals on a certain

problem or subject.

Efficiency. It refers of such an effective state or quality. The capacity to function or

operate quickly and effectively in a concise way.

Election. The formal selection of a candidate for public office or the approval or

rejection of a political proposition

Misleading. It is the action that causes a mistaken behavior or belief, frequently

through intentional deception.

Online engagement. It is the act or process of interactions on different social media

platforms.

Political Advocates. A person who actively supports the administration's public

affairs and the cells recommendations

Political Awareness. The extent to which an individual is aware of politics and

comprehends what they have encountered.(Zaller 1992, 21)

Political Content. It refers to the subjects or topics included in published works that

have to do with a government or the way a government works.

Political Opinion. The perspectives on how the state's government ought to be

operating.
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Reliable Sources. It is something that offers a comprehensive, well-supported

hypothesis, argument, discussion, etc. that is founded on credible evidence.

Social Media. It is a general word for websites and programs that emphasize

collaboration, interaction, sharing of content, and community-based input.